Mobile “Apps” and Tablets Take Over Clinical Trials (Investment by the pharma industry in wireless devices has grown 78% in the past year http://t.co/zyvGsP3EdR #healthit #tech)...

eMedToday's insight:

The insight

The pharmaceutical industry has been embracing these markets for several reasons. One of the biggest reasons is patient compliance. Patients want the "WOW Factor" - the digital and personalized experience.

Devices such as tablets and smartphones can cut clinical costs as well. Setting up desktops or laptops, or even printing paper, can be more expensive than simply downloading information on a device. Using these devices also allows patients to just send information via click or an IM/SMS. With the installation of "apps"; medical information can be downloaded instantly by doctors of Investigators.

INTERVIEW: Accenture's David Logue talks digital pharmaPharmaTimesDL: Pharma marketing organisations are often set up with a dependency on colleagues in the technology function to deliver digital experiences.

Apps are moving much closer to delivering real therapeutic benefit, as I wrote last month on Forbes. But life science venture capital investors of any stripe – financial or corporate -- are reluctant to invest in app developers.

“Pharma is emerging from a prolonged observational period with respect to mobile health,” he said. “There has been tremendous learning as to the influence, impact and stickiness of smartphone-enabled healthcare, accompanied by a certain degree of healthy skepticism as to the degree that these capabilities will drive behavioral change with both patients and HCPs. I believe that industry has started to turn the corner, and we are now seeing a more deeply-rooted acknowledgment that mobile health has begun and will only continue to profoundly impact the delivery of care and a patient’s relationship with her physician.”

"Some reports show that up to nine out of 10 adverse reactions from drugs go unreported. In an effort to find those possible adverse drug reactions in medications, pharmaceutical companies are reportedly searching social media for a better chance at learning of potential adverse drug reactions. There are many potential adverse drug reactions that patients might not think of to report to their health care provider, according to The Pharmaceutical Journal.

“Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are grossly under reported by everyone, including healthcare professionals, but particularly so by patients,” David Lewis, head of global safety at the Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company Novartis. Novartis is working on a three-year project called Web-RADR (Recognizing Adverse Drug Reactions) that will in part use social media information to determine if there are aftermarket adverse drug reactions in various medications. The program even uses the hashtag #pharmacovigilance."

Andrew Spong's insight: Poring endlessly over digital health data achieves absolutely nothing for the pharmaceutical industry in terms of its evolution towards the much-talked about but seldom delivered upon theoretical goal of 'patient-centricity'.

When it comes to researching diseases, seniors don't turn to—or trust—pharmaceutical companies very much. If pharma companies want to change this, they'll need seniors' doctors, friends and family members to sing their praises, as recommendations are the top factors that would motivate those 66 and older to visit pharma-sponsored websites.

DTC pharma advertising worksask anyone. But over the years, its effectiveness has been blunted by FDA requirements that, marketers claim, befog rather than clarify. Larry Dobrow surveys the DTC landscape in the wake of the FDAs newand some say revolutionaryguidance for communicating risk information in print ads

A new Harris Poll finds Americans favor generic prescription drugs over brand name products by a considerable margin. Eighty-one percent of those who buy prescription drugs say they would purchase generics more often than brand name drugs. A 42% subset goes so far as to assert that they would "always" choose to buy a generic drug. Older generations are especially likely to indicate that they would always go with generics (50% Matures, 44% Baby Boomers, and 46% Gen X vs. 33% Millennials).

Despite a surge of truly exciting new medicines reaching the market, it is clear that medical professionals are giving less and less time to meeting and engaging with pharma. What can the industry do about this, and does new technology hold the...

According to findings released today from the Fifth Annual Makovsky/Kelton “Pulse of Online Health” Survey, the percentage of Americans who trust pharma-sponsored social media "a lot" or "completely" increased from 17% in 2014 to 21% in 2015.

The same survey also revealed another trend: In 2010, 88% of Americans were willing to visit a pharma-sponsored Web site (e.g., a drug.com site), whereas in 2015 that percentage decreased to 80%.

Fielded in January 2015 to 1,015 nationally representative Americans ages 18 and older by Kelton, the Makovsky Health survey investigated consumers’ behavior and preferences for engaging with online healthcare information. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

Meanwhile, a Prevention Magazine 2011 survey found that 49 percent of respondents who went online for prescription drug information reported seeking this information on a specific brand's Web site. As a consequence of this influence of the Internet, FDA is currently studying how consumers interact with drug.com websites (read this Pharma Marketing News article:Are Drug.com Websites "Fair and Balanced?").

Before commenting on the above results, let me summarize a few other “Pulse of Online Health” Survey results -- especially those related to mobile and wearable devices -- that may be of interest to you.

According to the survey results, almost two-thirds (66%) of Americans would use a mobile app to manage health-related issues. Millennials -- the children of "Baby Boomers" -- are leading the digital health charge, as they are more than twice as likely to express interest in using a mobile app to manage their health compared to their parents (Baby Boomers aged 66 and older).

Mundane mHealth Apps FavoredIt seems, however, that Americans are interested in the more mundane uses of mobile health apps such as:

Speaking of wearable devices, the Apple Watch, which is is expected to debut in April, may not include a few of its much-anticipated, non-mundane health features such as sensors that track stress by measuring the conductivity of skin and an electrocardiogram feature that measures a user's heart rate. It turns out that the sensors "didn't work well on people with hairy arms or dry skin, and the watch underperformed on people who fastened it to their wrists too loosely." Also, the watch provided "inconsistent results from blood-pressure and blood-oxygen-level tracking technology" (read the story here). So, Apple decided to go with a more mundane pulse-monitoring feature.

OK, exciting mHealth Apps are difficult to develop for imperfect humans. Also, don't forget that if a wearable such as the Apple Watch is used to offer health or behavior advice, it may require approval from the FDA.

Let's get back to the results regarding pharma social media vs. drug.com sites.

According to the press release: Of the 80 percent of Americans willing to visit a pharma-sponsored website, those 66 and older were more likely to visit the site if a healthcare professional recommended it (52%). Doctor recommendation matters less to Millennials, with 41 percent visiting a site based on physician suggestion, and Millennials are also 23 percent more likely to be motivated by an advertisement to visit a pharma-sponsored website than those 66 and older.

When the press release says "23 percent more likely" than X, it means X + 23 percentage points higher. That's a significant difference in terms of being influenced by advertising. Who knew that our kids even noticed ads let alone are influenced by them!

I don't have the actual percentage of Americans who are motivated to visit drug.com websites by commercials. I'll ask about that when I interview the appropriate person(s) from Makovsky/Kelton.

When it comes to social media, Millennials are 25 percent more likely to trust a pharma-sponsored platform than those 66 and older (31% vs. 6%). There's another big difference!

Social media lacks authority with the general population as 79 percent of respondents reported they trust these channels either “a little bit” or “not at all.” Patients with a diagnosed chronic medical condition, however, report “complete trust” in these channels at nearly double the rate of the average population.

Given the trust (or gullibility, depending on your POV) of Millennials in pharma-sponsored ads and social media, it's a shame not many of them have use for the products that pharma sells -- not yet, any way. Perhaps the pharmaceutical industry will begin focusing more on "engaging" with Millennials in a non-branded way to establish long-term "relationships." And perhaps stop advertising to geezers on the nightly TV news programs and to hypochondriacs during the daytime! Or maybe not.

Digital media is said to be taking the place of face-to-face meetings with physicians. However,

a new study shows that doctors still prefer a mix of traditional forms of communication and digital interaction when deciding which pharmaceutical products to prescribe. Furthermore, the main way of digital communication is email, but this can change with a user-friendly platform that will enable marketers to reach more doctors.

Techniques such as automated detailing and video streaming are becoming more and more common as companies try appeal to healthcare professionals and control their marketing costs. As this is a new playing field for the pharma companies, no dominating standard such as Skype has emerged. That is why sales reps will continue to play an integral role in marketing.

Apps are moving much closer to delivering real therapeutic benefit, as I wrote last month on Forbes. But life science venture capital investors of any stripe – financial or corporate -- are reluctant to invest in app developers.

e-health is an emerging field in the intersection of medical informatics, public health and business, referring to health services and information delivered or enhanced through the Internet and related technologies. In a broader sense, the term characterizes not only a technical development, but also a state-of-mind, a way of thinking, an attitude, and a commitment for networked, global thinking, to improve health care locally, regionally, and worldwide by using information and communication technology.

RAPS' Alec Gaffneynotesthat the FDA has issued six warning letters to six different companies for posting unapproved claims on their Facebook pages in the last six months.

The unapproved claims occurred not only as part of posting, but also in the "About" section.

February 2015 was the highest level of Facebook regulatory oversight (in the form of warning letters) ever.

Dive Insight:

Last summer, the FDA released draft guidance on social media policy, opening the door for pharma companies to use social media channels more effectively, while also signaling that greater regulatory oversight would be forthcoming. Not only has the FDA been policing Facebook, but also looking at tweets from pharma companies as well. As Thomas Abrams, director of the FDA Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, has noted, the FDA's social media policy is evolving.

According to a blog post from Abrams last summer, "FDA sees social media as an important resource for industry and is committed to developing additional guidance for drug and device manufacturers that outline the agency’s current thinking," he wrote. "We do all of this work with the best interest of patients in mind."

Numerous UK-based pharmacists and pharmacology experts are making their voices heard via public social media, tweeting about pharmacy-related modules, writing about transforming urgent care services, or blogging about the relationship between community pharmacies and GP surgeries.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.